Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen bursts to bronze at World Cup final

Canada’s Ted-Jan Bloemen captured a bronze medal in the men’s
5,000-metre race at the World Cup final on Saturday in Salt Lake City,
Utah.

The two-time Olympic medallist earned the third-place finish
with a time of six minutes, 9.645 seconds behind a pair of Dutch
skaters who delivered personal bests.

Patrick Roest took gold by clocking in at 6:03.706 while Marcel Bosker, at 6:08.904, won silver.

Toronto’s Jordan Belchos took seventh place with a personal-best time of 6:13.395.

The
bronze medal helped Calgary’s Bloemen complete the long-track season
seventh overall in the standings. The 32-year-old won the overall title
last season.

“I’m a bit surprised I ended up on the podium today,
but it’s a nice reward for a hard fight,” said Bloemen. “I wanted to put
myself in a position to challenge for the podium, but in the end I
wasn’t able to hold on today, not as much as I would have liked. But I
feel good about the end of my season and am setting myself up for a
great next season.”

Belchos, 29, earned a career best overall finish in ninth.

Russia’s
Alexander Rumyantsev finished the season with 322 points to take
Bloemen’s title after placing fourth in Saturday’s race with a personal
best time of 6:10.785.

Weidemann has pair of 4th-place finishes

On the women’s side, Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann’s personal best 3,000-metre time wasn’t quite enough to land her on the podium.

The Ottawa native finished in fourth place at 3:55.582, just over a second away from bronze.

“I’m
happy with a personal best time, but it’s never fun to come in fourth,”
said Weidemann. “I wanted to go out today and skate aggressively, with a
sense of having nothing to lose. I feel like I’ve accomplished that.”

Weidemann,
who won two medals in the race this World Cup season, finished fourth
in the overall standings for the long-distance discipline with 322
points for a career best result.

Czech skater Martina Sablikova,
who skated in the final pair with Weidemann, won the race while also
improving on the world-record time she already owned, bringing it down
to 3:52.030.

Canadian Ivanie Blondin also set a personal best on
Saturday, finishing in sixth place with a time of 3:59.002. The
28-year-old Ottawa native ended up fifth overall in the discipline.

“I
made a lot of big improvements this season and I’m excited to go into
the off-season and start working towards next year,” said Weidemann. “We
have two Canadian women in the top-5 overall, that’s pretty
incredible.”